Rosita
Worl

Introduction to the
Tlingit Culture and Repatriation

The Tlingit Indians assert that
they have owned and lived in Southeast Alaska since time
immemorial. The archaeological records attest to a minimum
of 10, 000 years of occupation.

Living in an environment rich in
natural resources, the Tlingit developed a complex,
stratified society not generally characteristic of hunting
and gathering cultures. This complexity is particularly
reflected in their social organization, ceremonies and
arts.

The Tlingit, who are united by
common customs and language and who live in a geographically
bounded area, divide themselves into Eagles and Ravens. This
duality plays a significant role in their social, ceremonial
and everyday life. Balance and reciprocity between the
Ravens and Eagles are required to ensure social and
spiritual harmony. Their traditional custom demanded that
marriage occur only between individuals who were Eagles and
Ravens. This rule has been relaxed in the present day
period.

These two groups or moieties are
further divided into clans that are then subdivided into
house groups. Descent is matrilineal -- meaning that
children belong to their mother's moiety, clan and house.
The Tlingit were formerly ranked into classes or a hierarchy
ranging from those who were considered to be nobles to those
on the lowest social rank of their society. They also owned
slaves until this practice was outlawed by the United
States.

The clan persists through time.
Sergei Kan, a noted anthropologist of Tlingit culture, has
labeled this phenomenon as a form of "Symbolic Immortality."
A clan owns a host of names, and succeeding generations of
individuals cycle through these names. The Tlingit have a
concept known as "Haa Shagoon" that means "our ancestors"
and simultaneously unites ancestors with the present and
future generations.

The traditional Tlingit legal
system includes a well defined code of property law.
Property included both tangible and intangible objects such
as land, names, songs, stories, and crests. Children acquire
the right of ownership of property through their membership
in a clan rather than through the process of inheritance.
The clan rather than individuals holds collective rights to
property.

At.oow are the most
prized possessions of a clan. At.oow is literally
translated as "an owned or purchased object" and can refer
to land or sacred sites, celestial bodies such as the moon
and sun, names, stories, songs, spirits and crests. The
rights to these objects or a clan's at.oow were
acquired through an ancestor. On occasion, the payment
involved the death of an ancestor. The event in which this
occurred may be recorded as a crest or spirit design on a
physical object or through names, songs and stories. Clan
crests and spirit designs are socially and spiritually
important to the Tlingit. A crest depicted on an object
identifies clan members and reinforces the kinship bonds
among clan members. Crests are also considered to be sacred
in that they embody the spirits of ancestors and unite them
with their living clan members. The ownership of a clan's
at.oow is validated through ceremonies most often
referred to as "potlatches" in the general ethnographic
literature.

When explorers and traders first
arrived on the shores of Southeast Alaska after 1741, they
demonstrated keen interest in acquiring clan objects
decorated in an art form that would soon gain international
attention and acclaim. Northwest Coast art, as it became
known, was eagerly sought by succeeding waves of museum
collectors, anthropologists, and tourists. Often clan
treasurers and human remains were taken from gravesites
under the cloak of science.

Native Americans detested the
collection of their ancestors' human remains by Westerners.
They made no distinction between those who collected for
scientific purposes or those who viewed Indians as
sub-humans and collected the remains of their ancestors as
curios. Unlike the Westerners who believe the spirit of the
deceased leaves the human body and goes to heaven or hell,
Native Americans, including the Tlingit, believe in a dual
spirit, one of which remains with the body even after death.

American Indians across the
country clamored for the return of their ancestors and their
sacred objects. Their insistence for the return of their
ancestors and cultural objects coalesced as a political
movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Archaeologists and museum
professionals conversely argued that the human remains and
cultural objects were necessary for science and belonged to
the public rather than the individual tribes.

After contentious and
emotionally laden debates, Congress acted on the side of the
Indians. The National Museum of American Indians Act was
enacted in 1989 followed by the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. Under these
legislative acts, Indians can reclaim the human remains of
their ancestors and certain cultural objects held in museums
or by institutions that receive federal funds.

After the passage of the
repatriation laws, the Tlingit of Southeast Alaska began to
submit repatriation claims to various museums. Among them
were the Saanya Kwaan Tlingit of Cape Fox.

In 1899, the Harriman Expedition
removed numerous objects, including totem poles and other
crest objects, from the Cape Fox village which they presumed
to be abandoned. Today the Harriman Expedition Retraced is
returning many of those objects. Emotions are bound to be
mixed. The Tlingit can be expected to feel renewed anger
that their clan treasurers were removed without their
permission. They will blacken their face in sorrow and
express their apologies to their ancestors that they were
complacent in the removal of the objects. They will then
welcome the return of their ancestors and clan treasurers as
well as the visitors who are returning the objects. Finally,
they will then join in celebration for the return of their
at.oow.